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Happy New Year
Best wishes for 2007 and thank you for being a part of PBRTV since 1998.
Eric O'Brien, Owner and Editor
Jason Togyer, Columnist and Contributor
Tom Lavery, EMRTV/SVRTV Correspondent
Ken Hawk, CPRTV Correspondent
January 30, 2005
Shocking thoughts turns one's mind to the changes in the industry over 10 years
I graduated from Vincentian High School, now Vincentian Academy, in 1995. I'm sure you're unimpressed by that, but please read on.If I had gone to public school after my elementary years, I would have gone to North Hills High School. I was at Northland Library yesterday and searching through some reference material when I found years worth of editions of high school yearbooks for North Hills. Naturally, I was curious to look through the 1995 yearbook to see the people I might have graduated with had I actually gone there. I remembered many of them from elementary school but many of their faces and hairstyles had changed. I probably wouldn't have recognized many without a nametag. (One notable exception would be Joe Reinhart...only because he's miles taller than I am and we kept in contact through those years. I also know he's peeked at this website a few times...so where are ya now Joe?)
As I leafed through the pages of seniors I thought to myself, "So that's what he/she looks like now?" That's when the voice of reality said, "Eric, that's what they looked like THEN. That book you're holding is ten years old, ten years old, ten years old old old old old old..." (Note: If you still look like you did ten years ago, that "voice of reality" should apologize to you!)
Whoa! Goodness I am old! But I have never felt this way when looking at my VHS Yearbook from 1995. Perhaps because the memories there are still vivid in my mind.
Radio and TV in the last decade
A lot has certainly happened since 1995 in the radio and TV industry. Deregulation is the first that comes to mind. I recall the announcement of that by an Art Institute instructor of mine in 1996. "This will allow a company to legally own up to 8 stations - 5 FM and 3 AM - per market," he said, "What do you think about that?"It seems that many of the stations in town have suffered thousands of sell-offs, mergers and trades since then. There have been many callsign changes and station relocations, it's almost impossible to keep up. Yet, I thought I would try as best as I could to provide you with a list of the Pittsburgh stations then and now just to see where we've gone in ten years. Mind you, this is NOT a complete set of the stations listed on PBRTV. Get ready here we go...
Local stations with the same callsigns
While some of these stations may have changed format or tweeked the music choices, the callsigns haven't changed.FM - 88.1 WRWJ, 88.3 WRCT, 89.3 WQED, 90.5 WDUQ, 91.3 WYEP, 92.1 WPTS, 92.9 WLTJ, 94.5 WWSW, 95.3 WJPA, 96.9 WRRK, 99.7 WSHH, 100.7 WZPT, 101.5 WORD, 102.5 WDVE, 103.1 WANB, 103.9 WLSW, 107.9 WDSY
AM - 540 WWCS, 590 WMBS, 680 WISR, 730 WPIT, 810 WEDO, 910 WAVL, 1020 KDKA, 1050 WBUT, 1110 WKZV, 1150 WGBN, 1320 WJAS, 1410 KQV, 1450 WJPA, 1460 WMBA, 1480 WCNS, 1580 WANB
TV - 2 KDKA, 4 WTAE, 11 WPXI, 13 WQED, 16 WQEX, 40 WPCB, 53 WPGH
Local stations with changed callsigns
There are many more than you might think...and some have changed more than once in 10 years. The first callsign listed is what the station was in 1995 and the final one is what it is today and the year that those callsigns went into effect. Those that have changed more than once have the listings of all since 1995.FM - 93.7 WBZZ - WRKZ (2004), 94.9 WASP - WOGG (2000), 96.1 WVTY - WDRV - WPHH - WKST (2000), 98.3 WESA Charleroi - WZKT - WOGI (later licensed to Duquesne) (2000), 99.3 WPQR - WPKL (2001), 104.7 WXRB - WNRQ - WJJJ - WPGB (2004), 105.9 WAMO - WXDX (1996), 106.7 WWKS - WAMO (1996), 107.1 WSSZ - WJJJ (2004).
AM - 620 WHJB - WKHB (1999), 860 WYJZ - WAMO (1996), 940 - WESA - WPNT (2001), 970 WWSW - WBGG (2000), 1080 WEEP - WDSY - WPGR - WWNL (1999), 1250 WTAE - WGAE - WEAE (1998), 1360 WIXZ - WPTT (1998), 1510 WXVX - WPGR (1999), 1550 WCXJ - WURP (2000), 1590 WPLW - WZUM (1998).
TV - 19 WTWB-TV Jeanette - WNPA Jeanette/Pittsburgh (1997), 22 WPTT - WCWB (1998).
Increasing competition
Since 1995, radio has received increased competition thanks to the Internet. Speaking of which, it was only beginning to become such a viable technology when I was graduating high school. Before that if you were lucky enough to have access to the online world, you either worked for the government or you were a big geek.Now you have companies like AOL, Yahoo and MSN featuring online "radio stations" without commercials or personalities. There's XM and Sirius with their plethora of satellite channels featuring music and talk. Of course, all this comes at a price to us listeners, but nonetheless still provides our local stations with some stiff competition for listenership. (Check out the article in the 1/30 Post-Gazette for further details.
No wonder...
A lot of things have happened in this industry over the last 10 years - locally and nationally. My mind has been so engrossed in it that it's no wonder it is hard to believe that it has been 10 years since my last year in high school! Nonetheless, as time marches on we'll see more changes in radio and TV.
On a personal note...
If you happen to be from the Vincentian Class of '95 and reading this, is there a reunion coming up? I'll be happy to personally bore you with my vast (or is that half-vast?) knowledge of the local radio scene! Seriously, I look forward to seeing you again and hope that all of you are well.To those of you at North Hills Class of '95: Thanks for having that yearbook available at the library. By looking at that I felt compelled to write this. It was fun to leaf through and see those I remember from elementary school. It's also nice to see what you looked like now...I mean then....DOH! (I think I better go have a discussion with that "voice of reality" now.) May you all be well.
Photo: Eric O'Brien, the newsman. Photo Credit: David Hague, 2004
December 31, 2004
The Year in Review
It's been anything but ordinary for Pittsburgh Radio as things have been pretty well shaken. 2004 could be seen as the year the other stations take control of the market.Pat Cloonan wrote a sizable article in the McKeesport Daily News on 12/24 reviewing all-things media that have happened over the last year. While it was not published online, he sent me the article. It is not being republished here, but I have opted to review and build upon some of the major local points he touched on.
WPGB
Our first major shake up of 2004 was the switch of 104.7 FM WJJJ to WPGB. Along with it came a group of conservative talkers filling peoples' minds with their theories on politics and issues...and in an election year no less. The initial line up took Quinn and Rose from WRRK with the promise made good of syndication to sister stations in and around the region. Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz and Sean Hannity followed from their satellites and Paul Harvey was snatched from WPTT. Boortz was taken off WPGB in November in Favor of Rush Limbaugh who was snatched from KDKA. This move was not a surprise as Limbaugh is syndicated by Premiere Networks which is under the Clear Channel umbrella.The WPGB change changed a lot of things locally. WRRK had to find a new morning show and went with the syndicated Bob & Tom Show. KDKA was shaken by the arbitron ratings throughout the year as WPGB inched higher on the ratings. KD's programming changed to Bill O'Reilly when Rush was moved therefore taking O'Reilly from 'PTT and moving Boortz from 'PGB to 'PTT.
Had it not been an election year, I would wonder if WPGB would have really done so well in the ratings. There seems to be a bit of a hunger out there for conservative talk though and that could have been the ticket to the success of 'PGB. I will be interested in seeing what happens as time wears on and the hosts continue to banter on about the same stuff.
WRKZ
It was a shock to many late in June when the B-94...I mean 93.7BZZ...no wait B-93.7 Morning Show said some tearful good-byes on the air. Although the writing was on the wall for one of the Infinity FMs, no one thought that the 23-year-old top-40 station would get the switch.In February, Clear Channel dumped potty-mouthed Howard Stern from the six stations they carried him on. Pittsburgh's WXDX was one of them leaving no local outlet for Stern for a few months. In late June, to the surprise of many, WBZZ signed it over to Stern who announced that he would be returning to the market a few weeks later. The station stunted a DJ-free Rock format until Stern signed on for good and took on the new callsign of WRKZ - K-Rock.
The format change took Pittsburgh by storm making the top of all local news stations. Emails flew to all TV stations, Infinity and here to PBRTV. (We had a TON of visitors that day and the following week!) A few expressed delight in Stern's return, most did not and expressed a resentment toward the self-proclaimed King of all Media. It was probably the most publicized format switch ever.
A few months ago, it was announced that in 2006, Stern will head for Sirius Satellite Radio. He's tired of the FCC limiting what he can say and knows that they have NO say on what the Satellite companies air. It leaves me to wonder if WRKZ will continue as K-Rock or if something else will be planned. Perhaps there will there be a replacement for Stern? Stay tuned...we have one year before we'll know.
